ABC News Prime: Omicron variant; Ghislaine Maxwell trial begins; Conversation with Mel Brooks
[Music] shocking images out of istanbul turkey a clock tower thundering to the ground nearly hitting a driver who is nearby after a powerful storm pounded the city of 15 million people the winds blowing away at least 33 roofs uprooting at least 192 trees at least four people were killed and roughly 20 people injured tonight anxiety over the omicron variant grows but president biden says the new variant is cause for concern not a cause for panic what do we know about the variant how transmissible is it do we know how dangerous it is what's the number one thing you can do right now to protect yourself against that and other variants dr richard besser standing by to answer many of your questions tonight opening arguments today in the trial of delane maxwell jeffrey epstein's friend an alleged accomplice in sex trafficking alleged victims ready to testify maxwell already behind bars for more than 500 days will she take the stand our new reporting from inside belarus that manufactured migrant crisis and the ripple effects it's happening across the continent and the migrants caught in the crosshairs just hoping for a better tomorrow but now stuck in limbo and facing an uncertain future so this is where people are living and it's a packing warehouse you can see people are just living in the spaces where normally you would store goods what comes next and who's to blame tonight the clock is ticking to take advantage of the massive cyber monday sales today is expected to be the biggest online shopping day of the year customers expected to spend more than 10 billion dollars today alone amid inflation and supply chain issues rebecca jarvis has the biggest deals happening right now climbing the world's 14 tallest mountains in just a matter of months while not impossible it was seen as crazy to some until it was accomplished our inside look at a breathtaking achievement now a brand new documentary out today nothing is impossible 14 peaks in the past it had been seven years it had taken for people to ascend the 14 highest peaks you decide i'm going to do it in seven months where did you come up with that idea good evening everyone i'm lindsay davis thank you so much for streaming with us a cause for concern not a cause for panic those were the words of president biden today on the omicron variant which was likely a topic of conversation at holiday gatherings this weekend tonight we want to get you the most up-to-date accurate information about omicron it was first identified in botswana and announced by the who on friday one reason it has quickly concerned doctors is the sheer number of genetic mutations that it has and we've quickly seen confirmed cases beyond africa but tonight there's so much that we still don't know about the variant including if those mutations make this virus more dangerous or less dangerous and if it's more transmissible what we do know tonight is here in america hundreds of people are dying every day in hospitals the past week the average number of daily deaths hovering around 960 the large majority of those unvaccinated doctors and officials say the variant is just another reminder of the importance of vaccination and booster shots and an increased number of americans did rush out today to get a shot dr richard besser is standing by to answer your questions but first our stephanie ramos leads us off tonight from new york just hours after the world health organization warned the global risks from the omicron variant are very high president bided with dr anthony fauci at the white house aiming to reassure the american people and to urge them to get vaccinated and get the booster this variant is a cause for concern not a cause for panic scientists are now racing to learn whether the omicron variant with its 50 mutations is more transmissible than the delta variant whether it can make people sicker and whether our vaccines and booster shots will prevent severe illness the omicron variant was first identified in botswana and is spreading rapidly in south africa about 200 cases have been confirmed in at least 17 countries including two cases in canada dr falchi suggesting the variant could already be here something the president acknowledged today sooner or later we're going to see cases of this new variant here in the united states dr fauci says he expected our vaccines and the boosters to be effective in knocking down the severity of this new variant though he cautioned it's still early you don't know exactly what's going on with this variant but i would assume and i think it's a reasonable assumption that when you get vaccinated and boosted and your level goes way up you're going to have some degree of protection at least against severe disease this morning the final flight from johannesburg south africa touching down in newark ahead of the new u.s ban on foreign travelers from eight south african countries i think it's better to be safer than sorry to restrict the travel until we know for sure tonight portugal confirming 13 cases of the omicron strain in one soccer team after one player traveled to south africa the kennedy family from north carolina were on a safari in south africa they're now making their way home but the ban does not affect u.s citizens i understand that there's a more global and bigger picture than my little nuclear family but i'd like to get home quarantined to help genomic sequencing labs are now racing to find cases of omicron here in the u.s the president says all three vaccine makers are preparing to update their vaccines if needed in the event hopefully unlikely that updated vaccinations or boosters are needed to respond to this new variant we will accelerate their development and deployment with every available tool moderna telling us it would take a couple of months we'll know from laboratory tests in the next couple of weeks just how effective the vaccines are against this this variant the potential threat from omicron comes as the u.s is already seeing a spike with the colder weather and now the busiest travel weekend of the pandemic hospital admissions have climbed more than 20 percent since the beginning of the month our isolation unit for people with coven 19 here in the hospital every day gets bigger and bigger and bigger we're adding more and more rooms so we're going the wrong way with the variant we know now facing a spike in covet cases already new york's governor kathy hokel declaring a state of emergency to make sure the state and new york city are ready for any impact from the new variant and the governor ordering all nursing homes to make booster shots available we have to deal in the realities of a highly transmissible we believe variant president biden urging americans to wear masks indoors when out in public again to keep yourself safe and those around you tonight new york city doing the same recommendations once again to mask up in public stephanie ramos joins us now stephanie i know the cdc is doubling down on americans 18 and older urging them to get a booster shot as soon as possible what about 16 and 17 year olds well lindsay sources familiar with the discussions tells abc news that pfizer is going to ask the fda in the coming days to authorize boosters for 16 and 17 year olds now pfizer's vaccine was authorized for adolescents back in may so many teenagers are already about six months out from their second shot lindsey stephanie ramos our thanks to you joining us now to help answer some of your questions about the omicron variant is dr richard besser the ceo of the robert wood johnson foundation and former acting director of the cdc thank you as always for your time dr b there's been so much concern over this variant and while in many cases it's never too early to get ready to start can you just please walk our viewers through why exactly it's too early to know definitively just how dangerous or even not dangerous this variant might be right well you know lindsay this is a situation of incredible uncertainty and one of the things that i think gives me a lot of hope about the global picture um is how quickly the scientists in south africa identified this strain and alert the global community but with that rapid announcement it means that there's there's there's more that we don't know about this strain than we do uh what what they're concerned about is that there are enough mutations in this strain it's different enough from the delta variant and it appears that it's spreading easily in south africa the question is is still out there does it does it spread easier than the delta strain will it take over in places where the delta strain is spreading is it more serious will people who've been been vaccinated against covet so far will they be protected these are things that aren't known currently some of the signals out of south africa are encouraging in terms of the severity but it's still not known and it's going to be days and weeks before we have information on that because of that we're seeing actions being taken around the globe to ensure that if this is something that is is going to cause a lot more problems countries are ready and have taken appropriate action and medically right now is the best thing that americans can do while we wait for more information get the vaccine or get a booster shot should we concerned about the holidays yeah you know i i think that you know whether or not omicron turns out to be more or less severe this is really a time to get your questions answered and if you can get vaccinated if you've been fully vaccinated and it's been six months since you've had the pfizer modernist shot it is time to get the booster the cdc director made that announcement all adults anyone 18 or older should get that booster if you got the jnj vaccine it's been two months since your your your your dose you should get a booster that could help raise your levels of protection and it's also a time to don't forget those things that we know work so wearing masks especially indoors and places where there's significant transmission which is most of the country making sure that you're you're paying attention to ventilation so opening windows if you're gathering with people and not everyone's vaccinated making sure that those who aren't vaccinated and everyone who's coming together is getting tested those things can help as well it's not a time to to say wow we're we're this is a major setback but it's a time to double down especially in the winter when viruses do so much better with transmission and i should also point out that while americans are lining up for boosters much of the world is still waiting for their first dose of the vaccine we've talked to you before about vaccine equity repeatedly over the past year do variants like the omicron highlight just how critical vaccinating the entire world is that global community well it's critical for a couple reasons one is that everyone in any country should have the opportunity to protect themselves their families and their communities and right now it's really something where wealthy nations have cornered the market on vaccines the other reason is purely out of national self-interest that while this virus is spreading rapidly around the globe new variants will arise as we're seeing now with omicron and whether or not omicron turns out to be one that causes a lot of problems the next one could and so it's very important the u.s has been doing a lot to try and increase vaccine supply but globally there has to be more efforts to get vaccines to everyone around the globe and of course boosters do offer americans additional protection but in your estimation do you think that they should be going to other countries instead well you know that's a good that's a good question i think that you know if if i were uh in charge of full vaccine distribution and could send them i would make sure that frontline healthcare workers elderly people around the globe were getting vaccinated before people were getting boosters but in reality that's not the question we're being asked the you know in in reality there is enough vaccine here in the united states for everyone to get boosters if we're not using those vaccines they will not be shipped around the globe we need to do more to ensure manufacturing of vaccines globally and one of the things that we're also seeing is vaccine manufacturers starting to look and say okay assuming the omicron variant is a problem let's let's already work to produce a vaccine against that strain the newer technologies the these mrna technologies are such that very quickly vaccine manufacturers are going to be able to do that and if this is a strain that is causing problems you want to make sure that those next round of vaccines get to people around the globe and aren't cornered just by wealthy nations and i'd like to ask you about the travel bans as well it would seem the state-of-the-art sequence in south africa has may help the world get out in front of this variant but are you worried at all about rushing to exclude countries that that creates an environment where governments like south africa might feel less forthright about the strains of the very the virus that they may find find in the future if they know they will immediately be put on do not travel lists well you know i i hope that this is really a short-term action to allow countries to to gear up understand a little bit more about the the strain and then relax those barriers because you know we've talked about this before lindsay viruses do not respect borders this has already been seen in more than a dozen countries around the globe it will come to the united states whether there's a travel ban on or not and you don't want to impact a global trade you don't want to do anything that's going to impact the economies around the globe unless there's an overriding health value in doing so and clearly we've seen from travel bans they are very ineffective except in a very short time to be able to you know put in place some measures for immediate control at some point do you feel that we should all just come to terms with the fact that this will be uh there won't be i guess an end to this pandemic and instead covet will become an endemic something that we have to deal with for years if not decades but it vaccinated not something that we have to be scared of you know i'm not willing to say that we we are going to accept as the norm going forward a thousand people dying a day from a vaccine preventable infection 80 90 000 people getting infected every day i do believe that covid will be endemic that it is something we come to live with but we should not accept that it's something we live with with this hyatt's hole especially since it's preventable we need to do everything possible to convince our friends our family our neighbors to learn more to get comfortable and get vaccinated it's in their own self-interest in the it's also in the interest of those around them who may not get full protection from being vaccinated dr richard besser we thank you as always for your time and insight thanks so much lindsay we turn now to the sex trafficking trial of galen maxwell now underway in federal court here in new york city she was a friend and close associate of jeffrey epstein who now stands accused of recruiting and grooming underage girls here's abc's erielle reshef tonight more than a year after her high profile arrest galen maxwell jeffrey epstein's former girlfriend and long time confidant on trial for alleged sex trafficking the six-count federal indictment accusing the socialite of recruiting and grooming underage girls for sex with the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender between 1994 and 2004. today the 59-year-old maxwell
seated in the federal courtroom with her defense team cameras not allowed prosecutors alleging maxwell served up a 14 year old victim to be abused by epstein claiming she knew what was going to happen to these girls there were times when she was in the room when it happened epstein died by suicide in august 2019 as he waited in jail on sex trafficking charges since then investigators have zeroed in on maxwell but her defense team arguing that jeffrey epstein manipulated the world around him and the people around him including guillen and describing her as a scapegoat for his actions a sentiment echoed by maxwell's family the authorities lost epstein on their watch in federal custody theoretically on the 24 7 guard and they're taking it out on my system and that's just damn wrong three alleged victims who were minors at the time are expected to testify against maxwell including annie farmer farmer the only alleged minor victim in the case to publicly identify herself adamant that maxwell was complicit in epstein's abuse looking back at the series of events now it's just so clear how maxwell was a really important part of the grooming process and they work together as a team ariel reshef joins us now ariel tell us about the testimony today that we heard from epstein's pilot right so lindsay today epstein's pilot testified that that gail maxwell was essentially epstein's assistant and that the two seemed like a couple but of course everyone is waiting to hear the testimony of maxwell's accusers lindsay and erielle what do we know so far about the jurors in this trial well it is a pretty diverse jury we know that there are five men seven women that there are five jurors who are white and seven of color and of course maxwell's fate is now in their hands this trial expected to take about six weeks she has pleaded not guilty to all six counts lindsey ariel reshef our thanks to you next tonight the new york attorney general has released a flood of evidence from the investigation into alleged sexual harassment by former governor andrew cuomo including video of his 11 hour testimony and that of six women who alleged he harassed them abc's trevor alt has the details for the first time you are watching video testimony of former new york governor andrew cuomo have you ever had an inappropriate relationships with women on your staff inappropriate i assume means a sexual relationship with women on my staff the answer is no today the new york attorney general releasing nearly nine hours of video testimony over 11 hours of questioning recorded in july as part of their investigation which found cuomo sexually harassed 11 women leading to his resignation along with cuomo's testimony the ag's office also releasing a trove of documents and video testimony from six accusers including former aides lindsay boylan charlotte bennett and brittany comisso and so you have hugged ms commisso i have hugged her and she has initiated many of the hugs but in her interview recorded in may commisso claims those hugs made her uncomfortable and one went a step too far i remember his hand just sliding right up my blouse and i remember looking down i remember seeing his hand which is i would say it's a large hand and over my bra the attorney general's report said they found cuomo's denials to lack credibility and to be inconsistent with the weight of the evidence obtained during our investigation and the former governor is now facing a charge of misdemeanor forcible touching stemming from that alleged incident with commisso cuomo says that interaction never happened and has repeatedly denied all claims of sexual misconduct but he did publicly apologize to the 11 women who have accused him this is not to say that there are not 11 women who i truly offended there are and for that i deeply deeply apologize he does say he is sorry trevor all joins us now trevor how is the former governor responding to today's release well lindsay we've been hearing from the former governor's attorneys who have been quite critical of this release they're accusing the new york attorney general leticia james of acting politically she of course herself is now running for governor and they say this was a manipulated release of testimony with selective editing and selective redactions though it was nine hours of 11 hours of questioning and most of the edits were when people asked for breaks and lindsay also governor former governor cuomo is still scheduled to be arraigned on that misdemeanor charge though the albany district attorney says that they are still evaluating that charge lindsey trevor thanks so much now to cyber monday u.s retailers are expecting to ring up more than 10 billion dollars in sales if you happen to still be on the computer you're still shopping right now there are deals to be had here's abc's chief business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis the thanksgiving leftovers may be gone but the deals continue tonight this may be sort of a last chance for some people to get exactly what they want and when they want it with supply chain issues major retailers rolling out cyber monday discounts on everything from electronics to toys to housewares at best buy get 150 off this 70 inch samsung 4k smart tv at target apple products on sale like these airpods pro now sixty dollars off plus score fifty percent off toys like this coco melon bathtub set and at kohl's take an extra 20 percent off already reduced prices on everything from cookware to clothes plus get fifteen dollars kohl's cash for every fifty dollars you spend cyber monday expected to be the biggest online shopping day of the year with families spending up to eleven point three billion dollars but black friday sales fell short of expectations experts say because retailers wary of the pandemic and supply chain issues started promotions earlier this year retailers were basically trying to spread out holiday sales across the entire autumn so they were really encouraging people to start buying our thanks to rebecca jarvis and when we come back to urgent manhunt after a university student is killed while unloading his car post thanksgiving break he was just two weeks away from graduating a conversation with a man who climbed the world's tallest mountains what drove him to pursue this most daring of goals but up next the warehouse turned nightmare thousands inside desperate to start new lives in a new country but many now preoccupied by fears of a covet explosion taking hold [Music] this is what being live is all about this is abc news live all right we're gonna move on let's meet we're surrounded by people squeezing into this bomb shelter we're on an urgent delivery run not afraid to go there so my question mr president what are you so afraid of breaking news live events this is the moment streaming straight to you anytime anywhere you just met one friend right here you're watching abc news live thanks for streaming with us all right here we go you ready let's do it yes it's the show america wants and america needs right now this is what would you do hey let's go how are you i hug you so what will you be watching saturdays on abc news live what would you do hey i guess i just found out what would you do marathon 12 to 6 eastern every saturday on abc news live my favorite show admit it these days what you need to know seems to change just about every day what is it that you really want to know need to know to help you not just get through your day but to make the most of it feel smarter feel better feel happier well how about a third hour of good morning america gma 3 what you need to know now streaming on abc news live it's all about you [Music] this is american history a violent white mom a brutal attack 300 black americans killed right here in america now it is time to uncover tulsa's buried truth the gripping story brought to light in a new podcast from abc news available now on apple podcasts spotify or your favorite podcast app sex gambling fraud betrayal and murder cut throat inc the podcast a family on a mission to find their son a year's worth of conversations with the killer cutthroat inc subscribe for free now on your favorite podcast app 24 hours assault on the capital the abc news original exclusively on hulu now streaming now with so much on the line more americans are turning to david muir and abc's world news tonight than any other program across all of television this is an image of something that could have been so much worse police in utah say a semi truck lost a wheel and it flew into the pickup truck on the opposite side of the high road highway but fortunately the driver duct and was uninjured police police did give him kudos for not driving distracted and paying attention to the road ahead of him adding it may have just saved his life and next to the story that we've been tracking for weeks here on prime you may remember we first reported on the migrants seeking a better life stuck in limbo and forest between belarus poland and lithuania some say they are the victims of a vengeful authoritarian leader in recent days there were some signs of hope after shelter was provided for hundreds but as our patrick rievel reports the desperation is only growing worse this is a place normally meant for packages not people but this warehouse in belarus is now home for around 2000 people families young children living just on the floor these people mostly from iraqi kurdistan are trapped here about a mile from belarus's border with poland so this is where people are living and it's a packing warehouse you can see people are just living in the spaces where normally you would store goods and there's about 1700 people in here and clearly it's not a place where people are meant to be living you know they've been here for over a week already and it's just getting dirtier and dirtier and the conditions are basically just getting worse and worse so this is where you're living right now with my mom and my dad and my brother sleeping here in the ground people are gonna freeze if the countries uh don't do something for months belarus's authoritarian leader alexander lukashenko has been accused of luring thousands of migrants to the border with europe orchestrating a crisis to retaliate against the european union for its support for belarus's pro-democracy movement but blocked by poland migrants have been stranded in the forests along the border without food or shelter the crisis escalated three weeks ago attracting global attention when belarus marched hundreds of migrants to the border triggering violent clashes with polish police after the clashes belarus moved two thousand of the migrants to the warehouse it was seen as a hopeful sign that the crisis might be easing but the warehouse isn't set up for hundreds of people narin and her husband karwan now live in this tent with their seven-year-old son [Music] all people in here all of them seek they spent over two weeks in the forest before being brought here khawan says these bruises on his face are from a beating by polish border guards belarus is feeding people giving them porridge each day and now winter boots many are sick and it's feared kovid is running through the camp i am sick this weekend visited the migrants he told them he would help them get to europe and demanded germany and poland let them through the majority here want to reunite with their families find those close to them in germany please take these people bella russian officials tell the migrants germany will soon take them but there's no sign that that is true this is where these clashes between the migrants and polish police were taking place you can see that there's still this very heavy security presence on the polish side of the border even though the migrants have mostly been moved back you can see that there's this water cannon parked here and really a very heavy security presence still several thousand migrants are still believed to be in belarus poland accuses belarusian guards of still trying to push dozens of people across the border each night today belarus's authorities said another migrant was found dead at the border eu efforts to cut off the flow of migrants by pressuring airlines to stop flying them to belarus do appear to be having an effect the number of arrivals has sharply dropped iraq has also been flying home hundreds of its citizens voluntarily saying 1500 have left so far balsam halaf was one of them he said he decided to return after five months during which he says belarusian border guards robbed and beat him they assault you taking all the money that's on you even your watch or whatever that has value that you have they even break your phone but most in the camp told us they still hope to get to europe saying they will never go back that will mean more days in misery here and with no idea when it might end patrick revel bresky belarus for abc news just troubling circumstances there are thanks to patrick for that still ahead here on climb tiger woods breaking his silence what he is calling an unfortunate reality the tributes keep pouring in for trailblazing designer virgil abloh and it's cyber monday but how are small businesses faring we take a look by the numbers but first our tweet of the day from the now former ceo of twitter jack dorsey [Music] it was an extraordinary story a computer salesman was supposed to report to prison to begin a 17-year sentence they let him turn himself into jail with no escort no one thought he would run how do you evade casher for 25 years how do you do that now join the search following the us marshals as they uncover new leads in a global manhunt can you help catch this fugitive have you seen this man have you seen this man have you seen this man listen and join the all-new hunt wherever you get your podcast world news now and america this morning the best new video the breaking news overnight emergency crews called to the town of surfside u.s airstrikes hitting targets in iraq and syria the stories people are talking about you don't want to shave your legs don't oh my god and what to expect in the day ahead abc world news now and america this morning starting at 2 a.m eastern up all night to keep you up to date right now with so much at stake sunday mornings this is the place taking on all the tough questions straightforward reporting no spin no hype no bull see why sunday mornings more and more americans are now turning first to abc's this week with george stephanopoulos welcome to this week [Applause] [Music] when you wake up in the morning i'll be by i'll be there [Applause] i'll be there [Music] good morning america [Applause] this is what being live is all about this is abc news live all right we're going to move on let's do that we're surrounded by people squeezing so my question mr president what are you so afraid of breaking news live events this is the moment streaming straight to you anytime anywhere you just met one friend right here you're watching abc news live thanks for streaming with us welcome back everyone tonight it's still cyber monday following of course black friday small business saturday so we take a look at the retail economy by the numbers first off why it matters because consumer spending is roughly 70 percent of the entire us economy and right now it is make or break for many businesses particularly small companies which collectively employ about fifty percent of all private sector u s workers upwards of eleven billion dollars that's how much u.s consumers are expected to spend today alone the biggest online shopping day of the year according to adobe and 8.9 billion dollars was spending on
black friday slightly down from the previous year despite the push to shop at small businesses on saturday the smaller retailers saw 11 percent less revenue growth over october compared to large retailers over the weekend while a majority 55 percent of small business owners believe that the health of their business is good they are growing more cautious and concerned 73 of small business owners say inflation has had a significant impact on their business in the past year according to the u.s chamber of commerce and 61 say it's been difficult to manage supply chain disruptions a problem that's hitting small businesses especially hard and we still have lots to get to here on prime tonight are george stephanopoulos with one of the all-time legends of comedy mel brooks who reveals some things that you may never have known about a few of his masterpieces and remembering one of the heroes of his sport lee elder the first black golfer to ever play at the masters but first to look at our top trending stories on abcnews.com [Music] it was an extraordinary story a computer salesman was supposed to report to prison to begin a 17-year sentence they let him turn himself into jail with no escort no one thought he would run how do you evade catcher for 25 years how do you do that now join the search following the u.s marshals as they uncover new leads in a global manhunt can you help catch this fugitive have you seen this man have you seen this man have you seen this man listen and join the all-new hunt wherever you get your podcast [Applause] [Music] the most powerful stories of our time anytime nightline now streaming on abc news live 2020 true crime cinematic real life trauma stunning the unthinkable follow the clues the hunt true crime 2020 now streaming on abc news live admit it these days what you need to know seems to change just about every day what is it that you really want to know need to know to help you not just get through your day but to make the most of it feel smarter feel better feel happier well how about a third hour of good morning america gma 3 what you need to know now streaming on abc news live it's all about you [Music] all right here we go you ready let's do it yes it's the show america wants and america needs right now this is what would you do hey let's go how are you so what will you be watching saturdays on abc news live what would you do hey i guess i just found out what would you do marathon 12 to 6 eastern every saturday on abc news live my favorite show this is what being live is all this is abc news live all right we're gonna move on let's move back we're surrounded by people squeezing into this bomb shelter we're on an urgent delivery run not afraid to go there so my question mr president what are you so afraid of breaking news live events this is the moment streaming straight to you anytime anywhere you just met one friend right here you're watching abc news live thanks for streaming with us [Music] more than 50 nations including the us issuing travel restrictions to slow the spread of a new covent variant biden crediting health experts in south africa for identifying the new variant quickly this kind of transparency is to be encouraged and applauded because it increases our ability to respond quickly to any new threats some of those countries protesting the travel restrictions and saying the world should focus on getting more vaccines to africa where under seven percent of the population is vaccinated while we have that travel restrictions can slow the speed of omnicron it cannot prevent it we have more tools today to fight the variant than we've ever had before congress is hurtling toward a major deadline this friday which will force them to fund the federal government or allow a potentially damaging shutdown but house democrats today say they're working on a temporary solution to keep that from happening house democrats could introduce a temporary measure as early as tuesday to keep the federal government running at least through mid-january the stop-gap measure would keep government funding at current levels and buy congress some time as they juggle several deadlines including one in mid-december to raise the debt ceiling or default on the nation's bills as for the government funding plan federal agencies are expected to run out of cash by midnight on friday house lawmakers could vote on the temporary funding measure as soon as wednesday and send it over to the senate actor jesse smallett's criminal trial began today prosecutors say smolette told police in january 2019 that two masked men attacked him in downtown chicago investigators later concluded he staged the attack investigators charged millet with disorderly conduct he pleaded not guilty the trial expected to last at least a week a college senior killed this weekend in the city of brotherly love philadelphia police say temple university student samuel collington had parked his mother's suv on a street near campus returning from thanksgiving break he was unloading his car sunday when someone attempted to rob him during a struggle the 21 year old was shot twice in the chest and died temple university said this is a tragedy in every sense of the word it's absolutely insane i think it's pretty crazy how like how unsafe it is around campus over the weekend the city of philadelphia eclipsed 500 homicides for the year that's the most in its history golf legend lee elder who broke down racial barriers in the sport has died elder made history back in 1975 as the first african-american to compete at the masters paving the way for golf greats tiger woods and several others to follow he made 448 starts on the pga tour winning four times but receiving countless death threats along the way no cause of death has been revealed yet but elder had been in poor health he wore an oxygen tube beneath his nose when he was honored this past april at augusta national the elder was 87 years old he was the first he was the one that i looked up to because of what he did i was able to play here michael strahan for 15 seasons michael strahan put fear in the hearts of quarterbacks across the nfl and now his famed number 92 will never be worn again by a new york giant retired from circulation i am so grateful to have my family here because without them i am not here my father is here in spirit and my mom is here thank you mom for giving birth to me for encouraging me and for being the toughest person in my life for michael this moment was also about his teammates you don't do anything alone everything's not always about you and teamwork make the dream work it was about defying the odds you know what we did we won that super bowl in 2007 right they didn't give us a chance didn't they and never giving up what did we do [Applause] strahan's still agile as ever switching gears now ahead of his press conference and suffering a devastating leg injury during a car crash tiger woods is now breaking his silence about a possible comeback but also the limitations his body now faces victor kendo has more in his first in-depth interview since that devastating car crash in february tiger woods telling golf digest he feared he would lose his leg there was a point in time when it was i wouldn't say 50 50 but it was damn near there but not i would was going to walk out of that hospital with one leg wood suffered open fractures to both bones and his lower right leg after losing control of his vehicle outside la on february 23rd he spent three weeks in the hospital woods telling golf digest his greatest motivation to recover his son charlie the two embracing after he won his fifth masters in 2019. last week hopes for a comeback after he posted this video hitting a shot on the driving range he's come back from devastating injury before but this time he says his days of being a full-time tournament golfer are over i think something that is realistic is playing the tour one day never full time ever again pick and choose is an unfortunate reality but it's my reality and i understand it i accept it and we expect to hear from tiger again tomorrow he'll be hosting a tournament at a course in the bahamas lindsey victor thank you the tributes keep pouring in for trailblazing designer virgil abloh the artistic director for louis vuitton and founder of his own brand off white died following a private two-year battle with a rare form of cancer affecting his heart friends remembered him as a visionary and an inspiration breaking barriers and becoming a leader in the fashion industry virgil abloh was 41. now to the legendary mel brooks he's going strong at 95 and his new memoir all about me my remarkable life in show business tells all the stories behind the classics like the producers blazing saddles and young frankenstein abc's george stephanopoulos sat down with the hollywood icon at his home in santa monica this marker oh to scare you you still got it it's good to be the king with his ageless humor and sharp comedic insights the lord jehovah has given unto you these 15. this master
storyteller has definitely still got it ten ten commandments in his new memoir all about me my remarkable life and show business may the schwartz be with you mel brooks takes readers on the journey of a lifetime it's packed with every adventure in your life i was most struck by some of the scenes though from the very beginning of your life this image of your mom when you're a little boy heating your clothes on the radiator oh in the winter yeah i'm glad you caught that because that was so fabulous for me in the winter being five years old getting out of a warm bed was impossible so she figured out she put my clothes on the radiator she dressed me under the covers and i popped out of bed ready to go to kindergarten warm toasty warming were you funny in kindergarten i was i was a shower ever since i can remember i remember i once sang you must have been a beautiful baby i was i was just a little kid and uh i was singing it in class and my teacher heard me must have been a wonderful child when you were only starting to go to kindergarten oh you must have been a beautiful babe because baby look at you now and i was taken all over the school to sing you must have been a beautiful baby you write in the book that you think it has something to do with the fact that you're short the fact you're so funny being short meant that you could be picked on by other kids on the street but if you had a couple of people who loved you because you made them laugh and they were big and they were strong you had your army you know he started out as a drummer that's how he became brooks i started out as a drummer and i decided to use my mother's maiden name my mother's maiden name was brookman i said that's a better name than kaminsky my father's name brookman i was going to put it on the bass drum sorry b-r-o-o-k no more room so i just threw an s in and i was 14 and it was mel brooks and i've been mel brooks ever since i painted that brooks began his career in television as a writer in 1950 on sid caesar's variety series your show of shows i guess you can't even get a glass of water in a place like this was he your big break and he was my my incredible golden door my entry into uh show business uh at large you know you say you became a writer when you're on your show of shows but we have this this is a notebook here corporal melvin kaminsky you got my army my army your army notebook and you were writing back that i was writing back then yeah i wrote uh on the way over we went over in february 19 the beginning of 1945 on a troop ship there was a ship's newspaper and i wrote a column called my floating day a takeoff on eleanor roosevelt who had a column her column was called my day and she would talk about what was happening i wrote about crap games and smells i wonder if your time in the service is that the root of your fascination with adolf hitler uh maybe i i don't know it was fearful that's a good word you know carrying a you know a rifle wearing a helmet and worried about shells bursting and whatever but i felt world war two somehow first of all they attacked us and we had no choice but we were fighting for something good we were fighting to to preserve something wonderful in america [Music] the original title of the producers springtime for hitler that was the original title couldn't have a better title except joseph e levine said a lot of the exhibitors are jewish and they've called me and said they're simply not going to put hitler on the marquee there's no you got to come up with another title how can a producer make more money with a flop than he could with a hit well it's simply a matter of creative accounting let's assume just for the moment that you are a dishonest man assume away where did that idea come from a hit that's made out of a flop i worked for a guy you know there were many producers that kind of hedged their bets if a play cost 10 000 to produce he would raise 11 000 and their only problem was they had to be careful if they raised too much then they couldn't if it was a hit they couldn't they couldn't pay all the backers the producers was the first movie brooks directed it won him an oscar for best original screenplay in 1969. over 30 years later he created the producers broadway musical which won 12 tony awards and still holds the record for most tonys received by a single production you have a great line in the book about failure you say it's like corned beef hash it takes a long time to eat a long time to digest but it sticks with you yeah but what have you failed at i've plenty you never saw me in the mountains leaving the stage amid a chorus of booze you know when i had when i was doing bad jokes when i had not yet found my way which was reality was my way tell the truth and happens to be very funny at doing as well our thanks to george for that finally tonight to one of the most breathtaking feats in mountaineering history there are only 14 peaks in the world higher than 8 000 meters including mount everest and k2 in 2019 nims project conquered them all and shattered the record by doing so in less than seven months nims's journey was captured in a new netflix documentary 14 peaks nothing is impossible which is streaming now we sat down with nims and the director torpo jones to discuss the mission and capturing it all on film gentlemen thank you so much for joining us nims i'd like to start with you in the past it had been seven years it had taken for people to ascend the 14 highest peaks you decide i'm gonna do it in seven months where did you come up with that idea to be honest i had never even imagined myself until 2017. i was on everest as one of the lead instructors for the gurkhas to take under the summit so what happened that season was i managed to climb everest which is the world of first fourth and the fifth highest mountain and i did that in five days with stopping for two full-on day and night drinking so at that point i realized oh okay maybe i could do something bigger and that was the the igniter of the whole idea and at one point you say we drink tonight and we plan tomorrow how much planning goes into all this okay just to puts you like things into perspective a climber i'm not gonna name it he has tried to climb 14 times on one eight thousand meter peak and he hasn't still been able to do it it's a mammoth tax and uh you need to plan everything in details you know you need to look at the conditions of the team members you also need to look at the condition of the route the weather and and everything so yeah of course as just said it takes a lot and torque how did you get into this so nims and his team had filmed uh during project possible and then i met nim shortly afterwards and we kind of hit it off and started to talk about what he'd done and the fact that he'd filmed um the climbing scenes for the project possible you know they were not only filming these epic cinematic kind of you know shots from nepal pakistan and china but really even during the worst possible moments during storms during rescue missions they were still filming and they were filming right up into the summits when for most climbers you know they can't take their gloves out of their hands so i came on board after nintendo finished and then we kind of were very aligned in what kind of story we wanted to tell which was this is much bigger than a mountaineering film you know we wanted to tell a really thrilling action-packed story uh but one that had real emotional depth and torque will what message would you like for viewers to take away from 14 peaks when i first got involved in the project it wasn't because i was interested in mountaineering it was really because there was for me nims's story was much bigger than the 14 peaks it was about that idea that this guy has has battled against the odds he's battled against what people said was impossible and he's achieved it through you know an incredible physicality extreme mental toughness but above all i think nims has this kind of limitless imagination that means that it is an inspiring story you went up mount everest right and then you did two more peaks all in 48 hours a lot of times people need to regroup in between uh you know reaching the summit how were you able to push the limits like that of course i have a bit of you know different physicality but no different to any any people who lives in high altitude even though i grew up in the most flat part of nepal but the thing is what i believe in everything in life is if your goal is bigger than you if your goal is bigger than your selfishness if your goal is bigger than you know like maybe commercially the money name or fame you always get that you know massive energy what do you want people to know about sherpas who as you say are often overlooked in nepalese climbers in general well you know we are the king of a thousand us you know we you know we we dominate that thing and people have been taking that credibility that name away from us i think backed up by this project i hope everything will do the justice your mother was also ill during the mission how did that impact you while you were climbing a lot because i was very close to my mom i was the biggest financial contributor to my family you know because i was in special forces i was sending money to my mom and dad every month to my brothers and to my wife and and all when i decided to resign from the special forces it's not only me who suffer it's my whole family but what i said to them was look what we go through as a pain as a family is nothing to what the outcome of this project will be so many kids so many people around the world are gonna get inspired by this project the picture of that traffic jam that's now become so popular describe for me what was happening in that moment because i think many people didn't have the idea that there are so many people up at the same time so close to each other i never get to tell this story about that picture and i think all the media all the news everybody send the wrong message nowadays we are so negative that people are telling somebody else lowering themselves oh now everest is touristy you know even though you climb everest everybody is doing that that's completely wrong okay and why because look everybody who's not climbing everest everybody who's doing that is not trying to be next names or trying to be next you know top one one in that league for example so many people run marathon are they trying to be more farah are they trying to be number one in the world not necessarily you know people do this adventure people run marathon to to improve to from that experience what they do from adventure they want to take in their life and and wanna want to move forward the second thing was you know yes it was only two days in that season and and everybody who's going through the adventure wanted to pick that best weather so every day on everest it's not like that um please let's clear that message away it's still 9000 meters it's still tough and those people who wants to take away from adventure we shouldn't be lowering them so let's be positive guys gentlemen thank you so much for your time i really appreciate it and all the best with 14 peaks thank you so much and before we go tonight our image of the day courtesy of the white house take a look at the christmas decorations now on display first lady dr jill biden revealing this year's theme is called gifts from the heart there are 41 trees throughout the white house the official gingerbread pays tribute to frontline workers and weighs more than 300 pounds and that is our show for this hour be sure to stay tuned to abc news live for more context and analysis of today's top stories thank you so much for streaming with us [Music] coming up in the next hour elizabeth holmes breaking down on the stand during an emotional day of testimony for the former silicon valley wonder and our conversation with daniel day kim and his new nat geo series [Music] this is what being live is all about this is abc news live all right we're going to move out we're surrounded by people squeezing into this bomb shelter we're on an urgent delivery run not afraid to go there so my question mr president what are you so afraid of breaking news live events this is the moment streaming straight to you anytime anywhere you just met one friend right here you're watching abc news live thanks for streaming with us it was an extraordinary story a computer salesman was supposed to report to prison to begin a 17-year sentence they let him turn himself into jail with no escort no one thought he would run how do you evade cashier for 25 years how do you do that now join the search following the u.s marshals as they uncover new leads in a global manhunt can you help catch this fugitive have you seen this man have you seen this man have you seen this man listen and join the all-new hunt wherever you get your podcast admit it these days what you need to know seems to change just about every day what is it that you really want to know need to know to help you not just get through your day but to make the most of it feel smarter feel better feel happier well how about a third hour of good morning america gma 3 what you need to know now streaming on abc news live it's all about you [Music] the ladies you love the hottest topics happening now there's only one place to find it all you guys are having the hard conversations i love the view the most watched number one daytime talk show is the view now streaming on abc news live [Applause] [Music] i'll be there [Music] [Applause] i'll be there [Music] good morning america more americans choose abc news america's number one news source hi there i'm lindsey davis thanks so much for streaming with us we're monitoring several developments here at abc news at this hour prosecutors outside of philadelphia have asked the supreme court to reinstate bill cosby's sexual assault conviction they claim the verdict was thrown out over a questionable agreement that the comic claim gave him lifetime immunity but they say it creates a dangerous precedent of giving a press release the same legal weight as an immunity agreement cosby's lawyers long argued that he relied on a promise that he would never be charged when he gave damaging testimony during an accuser civil suit his words were later used against him in two criminal trials honduran presidential candidate ciomara castro at this time appears headed for victory 12 years after her husband was ousted in a coup the election which appeared to run smoothly could get that country its first female president in a nation where the feds currently say the president has ties to drug money and the federal trade commission is now investigating supply chain disruptions they have ordered walmart amazon and other big companies to provide information about just what's causing the bottlenecks and why prices for certain items are soaring we are tracking the spread of the new covet variant omicron reported in africa just on friday and now confirmed in at least 17 countries including canada president biden said today omicron is a cause for concern not a cause for panic while defending new travel restrictions from eight african countries as necessary to slow the spread and give the u.s time to prepare and for more americans to get vaccinated so how concerning could this new variant be and will vaccines hold up against it here's abc's stephanie ramos just hours after the world health organization warned the global risks from the omicron variant are very high president bided with dr anthony fauci at the white house aiming to reassure the american people and to urge them to get vaccinated and get the booster this variant is a cause for concern not a cause for panic scientists are now racing to learn whether the omicron variant with its 50 mutations is more transmissible than the delta variant whether it can make people sicker and whether our vaccines and booster shots will prevent severe illness the omicron variant was first identified in botswana and is spreading rapidly in south africa about 200 cases have been confirmed in at least 17 countries including two cases in canada dr falchi suggesting the variant could already be here something the president acknowledged today the sooner or later we're going to see cases of this new variant here in the united states dr fauci says he expected our vaccines and the boosters to be effective in knocking down the severity of this new variant though he cautioned it's still early you don't know exactly what's going on with this variant but i would assume and i think it's a reasonable assumption that when you get vaccinated and boosted and your level goes way up you're going to have some degree of protection at least against severe disease this morning the final flight from johannesburg south africa touching down in newark ahead of the new u.s ban on
foreign travelers from eight south african countries i think it's better to be safer than sorry to restrict the travel until we know for sure tonight portugal confirming 13 cases of the omicron strain in one soccer team after one player traveled to south africa the kennedy family from north carolina were on a safari in south africa they're now making their way home but the ban does not affect u.s citizens i understand that there's a more global and bigger picture than my little nuclear family but i'd like to get home quarantined to help genomic sequencing labs are now racing to find cases of omicron here in the u.s the president says all three vaccine makers are preparing to update their vaccines if needed in the event hopefully unlikely that updated vaccinations or boosters are needed to respond to this new variant we will accelerate their development and deployment with every available tool moderna telling us it would take a couple of months we'll know from laboratory tests in the next couple of weeks just how effective the vaccines are against this this variant the potential threat from omicron comes as the u.s is already seeing a spike with the colder weather and now the busiest travel weekend of the pandemic hospital admissions have climbed more than 20 percent since the beginning of the month our isolation unit for people with coven 19 here in the hospital every day gets bigger and bigger and bigger we're adding more and more rooms so we're going the wrong way with the variant we know now facing a spike in covet cases already new york's governor kathy hokel declaring a state of emergency to make sure the state and new york city are ready for any impact from the new variant and the governor ordering all nursing homes to make booster shots available we have to deal in the realities of a highly transmissible we believe variant president biden urging americans to wear masks indoors when out in public again to keep yourself safe and those around you tonight new york city doing the same our thanks to stephanie and for more now let's bring in dr john brownstein an epidemiologist at boston children's hospital doctor thanks so much for joining us first just break this down for us what do we know about this variant and what do we not know just yet yeah good evening lindsay i think we have to remember we know far less than we actually know about this variant unfortunately it is very early days and so we have to be very careful in not necessarily you know pressing the full alarm button when it comes to this variant you know we're looking at transmissibility whether this ohmercon variant is more transmissible than delta likely it potentially is because we've seen this rapid increase in south africa but it's still early days also on severity you know there were initial signs that hospitalizations were going up but then we saw anecdotal reports of mild illness more studies need to be done to fully understand whether this variant is more severe and then finally looking at whether this these vaccines will hold up well we fully expect that we will have some protection against omnicron from the vaccines but we just don't know the full extent we know that there's a number of mutations on the spike protein that make it concerning but we just have to wait and see there's just a lot of open questions and hopefully the science is going to play out over the coming days and weeks what's the most common question that you've gotten from some of your patients about this new variant you know i think the big question that i'm getting from everyone right now is are we just starting over are we heading into lockdowns again are we back to square one and i really believe that we will not be back to that march 2020 when we saw lockdowns we have so much more now we have therapeutics we have testing we've got a vaccine and you know we of course have you know even natural immunity because this you know other variants have spread through this country very quickly so vaccines may take a hit but i don't think we're going to see the lockdowns that we've seen in the past you know there is an urgency around vaccinations and boosters and i think this should be a signal to many people that if you've not gotten your vaccine get it if you're eligible for a booster probably now is the time in your estimation until we have a complete picture of just how dangerous it may or may not be what should americans be doing at this point well it's nothing really you know changes it's just that omicron raises the stakes you know it's what we've already been doing vaccinations boosters mask wearing testing ventilation you know these are all the kinds of things that we've been doing all along and of course we have delta and really a lot of transmission in the community already so the addition of this new variant doesn't really change the equation as far as what we would want to do testing is really importa
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